


Soft Things Don't Break

by matchsticks_p (matchsticks)



Category: Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: Canon Era, M/M, Slice of Life, Yuletide 2018, blink and you'll miss it reference to Zack/Justin/Quinta, passing references to Colin and Freddie, passing references to Rie, reference to racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-18 11:22:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16994076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matchsticks/pseuds/matchsticks_p
Summary: Three times Andrew felt things a lot more intensely than Steven was expecting.





	Soft Things Don't Break

**Author's Note:**

  * For [framblebee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/framblebee/gifts).



1\. After ["Taco Truck Telephone Taste Test"](https://youtu.be/tfyAw07yLXo)

"I have an idea," Steven says, once they're back at the office after their day of tacos.

Colin and Freddie have fully passed out on the couch in the break room—in a "ta-coma," Andrew insisted on repeating once more—and Andrew's eyelids look droopy as he sits slumped in a rolly chair across from Steven, his body threatening to slide onto the floor and slip into a ta-coma of his own.

"What's your idea?" he asks, turning his chair back and forth and bumping his feet against Steven's.

"For the new food feature," Steven elaborates, but only barely.

"I thought this _was_ the new food feature. This food truck telephone thing. Didn't we say we should do dumplings next?"

"Sure, and we will. But I need like…a steady feature. Something we can do a whole regular season of, without the hosts changing all the time like with this group thing. I'm thinking maybe just two people, the same two people every time. They go check out three restaurants per episode around some common theme, and then pick the best one out of them. I haven't figured out all the details yet, but something like that."

"That sounds amazing."

Steven has to look at Andrew to check if he's being sarcastic, because it's hard to tell with his voice. He looks dead serious. "Really?" He has to check again just in case, because it's also hard to tell with his face. He always looks dead serious.

"Yeah. It sounds amazing and I want in. You and me. Co-hosts."

Until Andrew said it, Steven hadn't even realized that was secretly what he was hoping for. But… "I don't know if that'll work out schedule-wise. They want me to deliver the first two episodes by September, which means we'd have to film them when you're in Europe."

Andrew shrugs. "So? Film them with someone else. When I get back I'll kick them off the show."

Steven chuckles, because it sounds like it's being said as a joke, even though it's delivered in Andrew's dead serious voice. Andrew's chair has rolled forward, and he's slid so far down in it by this point that when he turns his chair back and forth now, his knee knocks into Steven's rhythmically. 

It's not until months later that Steven realizes he wasn't joking. Specifically, it's not until Andrew comes up to his desk and asks him, "So, are you gonna break it to Keith that he can't be on the show anymore, or do you want me to?"

"Wait, what?" Steven takes off his headphones and flips down his laptop so he can stare at Andrew with proper concentration.

"I'm ready to do your show now."

Steven stares some more.

"Okay, so I'll be the one to tell Keith," Andrew decides.

"We can't just randomly switch out the host in the middle of filming," Steven says, when his brain finally catches up to what Andrew means.

"We'll come up with a backstory about how Keith is no longer available, it'll be fine."

"The whole point of this series is that it's two regular hosts who don't change, so it'll build audience rapport."

"There will be two regular hosts. You and me." Andrew starts walking away, like that was the final word and the conversation was over.

Steven has to trot to catch up with him. "Okay, but you can't just—what's the backstory?"

"Keith is too busy or something, it doesn't have to be elaborate. Who cares. By the time the season's over and they've watched me take you on twenty-one dinner dates, the audience is gonna be like 'Keith who?'"

It shouldn't be a convincing argument, and yet… "Okay. Fine. You're telling Keith."

Andrew stops at the elevator and slings him an easy grin before hitting the down button. "I already did. He said it's fine."

"You _already_ —"

Andrew's elevator arrives with a ding and he steps onto it without Steven, still grinning. "Next episode is pizza, right? I love pizza."

The elevator doors close and Steven is just standing there, looking at the reflective steel and wondering what the heck just happened. 

The next episode is pizza.

 

2\. After ["I Hired a Life Coach to Help Me Make Friends"](https://youtu.be/pMGhqE76kQA)

"I still don't think you need all this social coaching stuff," Andrew says as Steven climbs into his car.

"You're the only person I know who's more awkward than me, so I don't think you're a good judge," Steven points out.

Case in point: Andrew has agreed to come give him a ride from his own house after his experimental hangout with Zack, like it's not a completely bizarre request. Steven feels like he can't stay home alone after such a big step, feels like his nervous energy will buzz his skin loose if he doesn't get out of the scene of the event and out of his head for a bit. And Andrew responded like that was totally normal and arranged a time with him beforehand for him to come over and pick him up. Because Andrew is even more socially unacceptable than Steven.

"So? I don't worry about it, I _own it_ , I'm cool with being uncool. It actually loops back around and makes me really cool again," Andrew says, in that emotionless deadpan Steven has come to love so much.

Steven snorts at him.

It's just starting to get dark out, still plenty of light left in the sky to see by but streetlights beginning to flicker on. He can't remember the last time he spent a whole afternoon hanging out with anyone besides Andrew, and though it isn't an actually remarkable achievement, he's kind of proud of himself. 

As if he can read his thoughts, Andrew pipes up again and asks, "So, did you have a fun play date?"

"Oh, shut up."

"No, seriously, how was it?"

Steven has to turn to look out the window so Andrew doesn't see him smile too much. He shouldn't be this pleased with himself for making a work friend. "It was good. Really good. We talked about basketball and he invited me to play with him and Justin and some of their other friends sometime. I don't know if I will, but it was nice just to be invited. And he said some stuff about being an introvert that made a lot of sense. Zack's nice. I don't know why I didn't expect him to be."

"If you start hanging out with him and Justin, people might think you have some kind of thing for blond white guy plus Asian guy pairings."

Steven laughs. "What, like they're a parallel world version of us?"

Andrew shrugs noncommittally.

Steven laughs harder. "I don't think there's any danger of anyone thinking that. No one else in the world would see any similarities between us and the Bros Who Bro Hard While Bro-ing Out."

Steven knows Andrew sees the hilarity in the idea as well because he starts reluctantly smiling.

"And anyway, they can't be because they have a Quinta," Steven points out.

"Adam can be our Quinta."

"Eeeewwwww, Adam is like a brother to me!"

"Fine, what about Rie, she can be our Quinta."

"Eeeeewwww, Rie like a brother to me!" 

Andrew finally cracks up at that, and Steven feels a sense of triumph. 

He feels a sense of something even warmer than that when he realizes where Andrew's been driving him this whole time. 

"Come on, let's get you some of that stupid fancy bubble tea," Andrew says, parking the car. "Since you did such a good job acing your very first play date. You deserve a treat." He waits outside while Steven gets out so he can catch up and take his hand.

 

3\. After they eat durian in ["$2 Curry vs. $75 Curry"](https://youtu.be/-JmA5_gHrrM)

"It's probably one of the best fruits I've ever had, to be completely honest," Andrew says for like the fifth time while they're cleaning up the table they'd set up in the street for the shoot.

"Okay, it's delicious and all, but I know you didn't like it _that_ much," Steven says. "What's gives?"

"I just think it tasted really amazing, I don't know why I never had it before. It truly is the king of fruits."

Steven just looks at him.

"And I don't know why people laugh at people who like it. It doesn't even smell that bad. It tastes better than it smells, obviously, but even the smell isn't…there are so many foods we accept as normal that smell way worse, like aged cheeses."

So Steven hadn't just imagined the constipated look that Andrew briefly had when Steven explained the durian, then. 

"It's gotta be because this is some wacky Asian fruit, and people love making jokes about Asian foods in general, you know? How it's all freaky animal parts and dog meat and stuff like that," Andrew goes on.

"I know, thanks. You don't have to explain racism to me."

"Sorry." Andrew immediately says it without a trace of defensiveness, and it's just one of the multitude of reasons Steven likes him so dang much. 

"It's fine," Steven says, and he doesn't mean what Andrew said because he wasn't actually mad about that, he was just teasing him. But the other stuff, the stuff they're talking about, "I accepted a long time ago that some people are just always going to be stupid no matter what you do. I'm over it."

"I know. It just pisses me off to think about your family being so happy and excited to eat durian, and then a bunch of people who've never even tried it being total buzzkills." 

Steven just shakes his head at him because he's so fond of Andrew it's almost overwhelming sometimes. They're done wiping the table down, just have to fold it up, throw away the bag of durian seeds and empty spiky shell, and load everything into the trunk of their car before regrouping for the next restaurant. 

Steven goes to throw their trash away. Andrew escorts him like some kind of gentleman. Annie and Adam don't wait for them, just start packing everything up themselves and bundling into the car—they've got playback to analyze and ambient audio to complain about and curry to discuss. 

For some reason the closest dumpster is an improbably long ways away. This explains why Annie and Adam didn't complain about being left to do the packing up. They stroll in companionable silence for a while, until Steven is thinking about going out for fresh durian picked straight from the tree as soon as the plane lands in Malaysia again. 

"You know," he starts, stealing a sidelong glance at Andrew, who turns his attention away from whatever bird or street cat he was probably engrossed by and looks at him with soft eyes, "They really do taste way better in Malaysia. Durians, I mean."

"Yeah?"

"The one we had today was decent, but if you really want the full experience, you need to try it fresh."

"Okay…"

"You should come with us next time."

"To Malaysia? With your family? Are you serious?"

"If you're gonna say yes, then yes, I am."

Steven doesn't wait for him to answer, practically sprints to the garbage bin where he chucks the bag and then turns around to find Andrew much closer than he expected. Andrew's laughing at him, saying, "That's not how invitations work, you have to let the invitee respond," and holding out his hand for Steven.

Steven takes it, and then doesn't walk with him so Andrew ends up tugging on his hand as he goes to walk back to the car, doing an exaggerated stumble like he's been jerked backwards by Steven's weight. 

"So? Is it a yes, then?"

"Of course it's a yes, are you kidding me?" Andrew says easily. He tugs harder on his hand and pulls Steven into him, kissing him quick and chaste. "Your breath smells like durian."

"Well apparently it's your favourite smell and you hate everyone in the world who's ever said anything bad about it, so."

"Correct," Andrew agrees.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This is not meant to match up with any irl details of scheduling or filming or how Buzzfeed videos are made, so please don't @ me. Thank you to my Yuletide recipient for the lovely prompts; I very much hope you enjoyed this. Thank you to my source of eternal light Adi_Rotynd for beta reading and cheerleading.


End file.
